James Bulger killer Jon Venables made sick taunts to staff as he served time for murdering the tot, an ex-inmate has claimed. Venables would fly off the handle when he didn’t get his own way – threatening “I’ll kill your kids” in depraved taunts to staff. This is the claim of a young offender who served time at Red Bank with Venables after he was caged for eight years for killing the two-year-old.

Venables was given special treatment by staff, the inmate told the Daily Star newspaper. The claims have surfaced after James’s mum Denise Fergus called for an enquiry into the case – with the government rejecting a petition signed by 200,000 people. She questions why Venables served no time in adult prison, and why he was deemed to have been rehabilitated when he has twice since been sent to prison for child sex offences.

Remembering his time in Red Bank when Venables was imprisoned, the inmate branded him “one sick c***”. “He would say all sorts of sick stuff and kick off to the staff” He claimed killer was spoiled while serving time – being given up to £23 a week spending money. Venables became the youngest person in English history to be convicted of murder when he and Robert Thompson, both 10, were sent down for the torture and killing of James on a railway line in Walton. Both now live under taxpayer-funded anonymities – with publication or sharing of any details regarding his current ID and whereabouts being punishable by jail time.